


dust haze in the sagebrush

by Xaidread



Category: Brokeback Mountain - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Idea dump, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 12:02:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16040084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xaidread/pseuds/Xaidread
Summary: This is a collection of au ideas from 2014 when I ran the askennisdelmar blog





	1. Table of Contents

**Author's Note:**

> Navigate to the About page on Ask Ennis: [[link](http://askennisdelmar.tumblr.com/about)]

  1. Table of Contents [you are here]
  2. Brokeback in the Outback - Australian Penal Colony AU
  3. Lineman - Ennis gets a job AU
  4. Assassin's Creed in the Old West AU
  5. Queer Privateers AU
  6. Fight Club AU
  7. Pacific Northwest Fur Trapper AU
  8. Proulx short stories crossover




	2. Brokeback in the Outback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU: convict transportation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started on this au in June 2014 before making the askblog. This one's been thought out more than the rest of the collection, as far as researching goes anyway.

scenario

  * They're raised on opposite ends of Lancashire, Ennis north in the Lakeland District and Jack to the south on the bank of the River Mersey.
  * Jack's independent streak gets him in trouble with his da but he can't be beaten to submission. When he's 14 years old he fights back and beats John badly, takes a few boat rides with his mother up to Southport, and settles at Halsall for a (short) new life.
  * Ennis's home life is a lot more stable since they're situated at one of the wealthier townships, Hawkshead. He’s not too badly impacted by his parents' deaths, a combined horse and drowning incident during flood season. He marries Alma, has a child and another on the way.
  * Both guys get transported to New South Wales for the duration of their natural lives on convictions of manslaughter. Jack was shipped out in 1804, about six years before Ennis, and already absconded several times and had a few stints on the chain gangs under his belt by the time they meet at the sheep station they're assigned to.
  * Ennis gets his ticket of leave long before Jack on account of good behavior. He finds better work and saves up to eventually buy land. He doesn't see Jack again until Jack's assigned to him.



biographical details

(intake data sheet format based on [Tocal records](http://www.tocal.com/homestead/vandv/index.html))

Jack (Jakan Hinds b. 7 Mar 1787)  
Ship: [Coromandel](https://www.jenwilletts.com/convict_ship_coromandel_1804.htm) Date arrived (Port Jackson): 7 May 1804  
Offence: ~~Malicious Assault~~ Manslaughter  
Sentence: Death commuted to transportation for life  
Native place: West Darbyshire (Garston or thereabouts) Country: England  
Trade or Calling: Labourer (gravedigger)  
Height:5'4 Complexion: ruddy fair Hair: dark brown Eyes: dark grey

Ennis (Elim Moore b. 3 Nov 1787)  
Ship: [The Indian](http://www.jenwilletts.com/convict_ship_indian_1810.htm) Date arrived (Port Jackson): 16 Dec 1810  
Offence: Malicious Assault Sentence: 7 years transportation  
Marr/S: M Child'n: 2  
Native place: Hawkshead Country: England  
Trade or Calling: shepherd Height: 5'11 Complexion: fair and freckled Hair: light brown Eyes: dark brown

The Moores make their living on raising sheep. Dead parents: Alethy and Zephon. K.E. inherits the farm.

ficlet: burying electrocuted sheep (about three dozen casualties)

Elim and Iakan dig a pit, preparing a pyre for the first set from thirty corpses of sheep felled by a single lightning strike three days past for foolishly being allowed to shelter under a tree. The reek of charred wool keeps Elim gagging, but Iakan carries on digging without breaking rhythm like he’s already had to bury burnt bodies. Soon enough Elim cannot bear it any longer. He pushes up and out from the couple of feet they’ve cleared on this side of the hole, drops the shovel by the opening, and makes for the other end of the pasture downwind from the pile of bloated bodies.

Iakan ceases shoveling to look up after Elim’s retreat until the tall man goes beyond his sights. Snorting, he drives the flat blade to bottom.


	3. Lineman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "They got a openin over at the power company. Might be good pay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> inspired by the song Wichita Lineman, written by Jimmy Webb and performed by Glen Campbell [[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qoymGCDYzU)]

Ennis does take the job with the power company. Life doesn’t get better for it.

The constant Wyoming wind drawing out whines from the wire. Another kind of manual delicacy needed to avoid getting shocks but the temptation to hurl himself into an end gets strong at times when he misses Jack so bad and the brand of electricity only Jack can make him feel. Yet still the inability to articulate those thoughts.


	4. Old West

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> partly inspired by the defunct webcomic Goodbye Chains

Possible scenarios:

Jack Twist as a member of the Assassin's Order who recruits Ennis del Mar, a drifter who rode for the Pony Express as a kid. They get into lawbreaking, gunslinging, cowboying, sabotaging industrial operations, robbing Templar-controlled banks, and some other stuff I guess.

Or maybe Jack is low on the rungs or just an ally and works at gathering intel while his protege Ennis rises in the Brotherhood's ranks and takes on increasingly dangerous missions. When Jack asks why he's chasing after danger, Ennis tells him if the cause is worth fighting for it's worth dying for. Jack has to think on it for days after.


	5. Privateer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> inspired by the traditional ballad [Henry Martin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Martin_\(song\)), performed by Joan Baez [[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcrNySdHKDQ)]  
> Set in the [Eighty Years' War](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar)

Ennis del Mar turns to commerce raiding for Spain to support his older brother and sister. He captures a ship commanded by English mercenary Jack Twist and struggles over matters of love, loyalty, faith and honor.


	6. Fight Club

Ennis is the nameless everyman, Jack Twist is his radical best friend/boyfriend-hallucination, Randall lost his testicles to a bull on steroids, Lureen is the grungy support group tourist who dates Jack (and Fayette’s collagen is used for the first batch of soap), Fight Club instead is an underground bareback bronc riding ring, Ennis blows up Aguirre’s trailer office, and the space monkeys' uniform includes a black Stetson.


	7. Fur Trappers

Ennis and Jack trade with the Hudson's Bay Company. They initially have a rivalry over turf but a bout of fisticuffs gets a bit too arousing and they figure it’s easier to share territory as partners. Jack sometimes has harebrained get-rich schemes, like an early attempt at a mink farm combined with a fishery (to keep those little bastards fed).

Possible things: trying to out-compete with agents of the American Fur Company, hunting "the big one" beastie, the decline of the fur trade in the 1830s

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Further reading:  
> [North American fur trade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_fur_trade)  
> [North West Company (1779-1821)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_West_Company)  
> [American Fur Company (1808-1847)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Fur_Company)  
> [American mink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mink)  
> Trope: [Hunter Trapper](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HunterTrapper)  
> [Métis in Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tis_in_Canada)  
> [The British in Wyoming](https://wyominghistory.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-british-in-wyoming.html)


	8. Close Range crossover

Since the original BBM publication in the New Yorker had Car Scrope as Ennis's boss instead of Stoutamire, I wonder a bit about a mashup of characters from other Close Range stories. Something like a narration of "Pair a Spurs" from Ennis's POV as something to gossip about to Jack, maybe. Jack meeting Diamond Felts from "The Mud Below" on the rodeo circuit, but I don’t think anything conclusive would come out of it.


End file.
